Seven
French kiss
House of Distillery Records/Tuba

This is Seven's second and the follow up to their 2001 debut At the Sixes and Sevens. Back then I really couldn't get the sort of hype around the Band and their music, with a lot of raving thumbs-up-hands-in-the-air-critics and quite some heavy radio rotation of songs like "Hush" and "Bite". They toured the country and I got to see them at the Öyafestivalen '01. But I still didn't get what the fuss was about.

Last fall they put out the Thieves like us EP, as a taster of what to come, and the title track from the EP is included here. French kiss is an 11 song journey through Seven's mix of (a dash) 70s guitar pop/rock and 80s sounding ditto, topped with female vocals and a most horrible synth. Yes, horrible! I find the sound of it so annoying and disturbing I can hardly listen without prejudice. Seven operate the wanna-sound-like 80s new-wave rock, which seems to be - still - a 'fashion thing' around; in Norway represented by bands like Briskeby (couple of years back), Surferosa (oh, horror....) and Seven. Well, afterall it's hard to match Blondie.

The problem I see (well, uh, hear) when listening to Seven is: the music is too grey - they simply lack songs, good enough songs. It all come out as...something anoymous. I get bored, I don't get excited. OK, there's a certain drive within the title-track, but mostly things pass by way to straightforward. Exception: "Another Day" is a bit charming and has a slight elegance, and is my favorite pick (my only) off this record.

Call me an ignorant but no thanks, no french kiss. Not this time.

Copyright © 2003 Håvard Oppøyen